Civil War scenario - thoughts?

Mesix · Jul 10, 2013

I played through the Civil War scenario as the Union. I will also play as the Confederates and replay perhaps one additional time to get all the achievements. Outside of this, I find that the scenario lacks the luster of previous scenarios. It doesn't include any of the new game mechanics nor any of the new civs from the expansion. It seems out of place. There are many other scenarios which would have been better and more appropriate for the expansion from a thematic point of view (i.e. War of 1812, Spanish American War, the list is almost endless). The Civil War could have also had more depth including neighboring powers (i.e. Indian tribes, Texas) either as playable civs or as city states. compared to other scenarios, this one just comes off weak.

What do you think of this scenario? Will you play it more than one or two times? Does it take the crown for worst scenario in the Civ 5 series?

As an aside, what other historic wars or time periods would make an interesting Civ 5 scenario?

Sonereal · Jul 10, 2013

Here were my thoughts.

I played both scenarios yesterday (not completely). I played the ACW for 20/50 turns and SfA for ~60/100 or something turns.

Does anybody else feel that the American Civil War scenario could've been included in Gods and Kings and no one would notice? Don't get me wrong, the scenario is fun, but if I didn't tell you that the scenario came with Brave New World, you might've thought it was for Gods and Kings and just had a few new units.

On the Steam page, the six major features, features major enough to warrant even being put on the page, are the New Culture Victory, International Trade Routes, Ideologies, World Congress, New Units/Buildings/Whatever, and New World Wonders.

The new culture victory, of course, doesn't matter in the ACW. Trade routes are disabled, ideologies and the world congress are disabled, you're not building world wonders during the ACW, and I guess there are new units, but none of them shiny enough to justify the scenario for this particular expansion.

As a matter of fact, the more I played the ACW scenario, the more I realized that Empires of the Smokey Skies would've been a better BNW scenario than the ACW scenario was.

Mesix · Jul 10, 2013

An expanded Smokey Skies would be cool. I liked the Steampunk motif and some of the BNW mechanics would fit nicely in Smokey Skies.

Sonereal · Jul 10, 2013

Mesix said:
An expanded Smokey Skies would be cool. I liked the Steampunk motif and some of the BNW mechanics would fit nicely in Smokey Skies.

I wished all the scenarios would eventually be updated for BNW to be honest, but Empires is the one that stands out the most. Maybe Fall of Rome as well given internal trade routes could've be useful.

Cymsdale · Jul 10, 2013

Mesix said:
An expanded Smokey Skies would be cool. I liked the Steampunk motif and some of the BNW mechanics would fit nicely in Smokey Skies.

I agree. I feel a bit sad that my favorite scenario has become "obsolete" (I'd miss the new mechanics too much).

Mesix · Jul 10, 2013

Perhaps it would be an interesting mod project...

Thorn · Jul 10, 2013

Sonereal said:
Does anybody else feel that the American Civil War scenario could've been included in Gods and Kings and no one would notice?

That was most likely the original intent. Didn't people find some American Civil War art and references in the Gods and Kings expansion that were not used?

Viregel · Jul 10, 2013

The War of Three Nations would make an interesting scenario. Someone already made a version of it, and I'm really enjoying it. I don't know if it would be too contreversal for Civ, but the Pacific theatre of WWII would make a good scenario.

An Lu-Shan · Jul 10, 2013

Mesix said:
As an aside, what other historic wars or time periods would make an interesting Civ 5 scenario?

I would love to see a pre-revolutionary america eastern seaboard mod. Sort of an expanded "few acres of snow". One with a map script that would generate a changing yet recognizable playing field (such as the "great plains") with bands of ocean, coastal plains, piedmont, small-long mountain ranges, then heavy forest and large lakes. Rather than using just european powers (france, england, spain, etc) the euros would be regional american cultures (new england, virginans, Middle colonials, british and french canadians) they would be complemented with various indian powers. The city states would be the smaller indian tribes or the lesser colonial powers (new sweden, rhode island, st. augustine, etc.) this would only be possible if one could script the map so that the indians would start in the interior and the euros would all start on or very near the coast.

Thoughts? (I'll probably have to migrate this to a modding thread, but I got carried away...

jdr_42 · Jul 10, 2013

The Civil War could have also had more depth including neighboring powers (i.e. Indian tribes, Texas) either as playable civs or as city states

Texas? I assume you mean that the western states aren't on the scenario map, but Texas became a US state long before the opening of the Civil war and joined the Confederacy (before Virginia). It would hardly be a neighboring power.

The western states did spend a lot of time trying to win over various native tribes to one side or another, which could have been a good addition to the scenario, as would attempting to gain alliances with various European powers. It's also a shame that trade routes don't exist in the scenario, as cutting off European trade was such a major part of the Union's strategy.

Byzantine Bomb · Jul 10, 2013

jdr 42, you raise a good point. It would be cool to see Scott's Anaconda Plan cutting off Confederate trade routes, or perhaps even a Confederate naval blockade damaging the Union.

Wabango · Jul 10, 2013

I have loaded it up 3 times, and three times I have not had it in me to even begin it. The map is massive, bland and the actual dynamics of it are in no way appealing to me.

MrL567 · Jul 10, 2013

While the actual thing is boring, I LOVE the random infantry promotions. Itis so cool how the do that. I wold love for tha to be modded in with UU having unique choices with all units having a chance to become diffremt Ina positive or negative way.

zxcvbob · Aug 31, 2017

I'm playing the scenario for the first time now, as the Union. I've captured maybe a half-dozen cities and have only lost one north-west city that I didn't care about. Richmond is surrounded and I'm hitting it with cannons, rifled cannons (the regular cannons are stronger), frigates, and an ironsides and it's health is dropping very slowly. Not sure if I can capture it in the remaining 20 turns. I must be doing something wrong... Might ought to be throwing infantry (the strong ones, not normal infantry) at even tho' they die when attacking.

I haven't built any military engineers; is that it? Do I need to build a railroad so I can bring new units in faster? Anyway, it's not a great scenario, but it's kind of fun and it's a quick one.

Civil War scenario - thoughts?

Mesix

The Allfather

Sonereal

♫We got the guillotine♫

Mesix

The Allfather

Sonereal

♫We got the guillotine♫

Cymsdale

Prince

Mesix

The Allfather

Thorn

King

Viregel

, The Rt. Hon.

An Lu-Shan

Chieftain

jdr_42

Chieftain

Byzantine Bomb

Warlord

Wabango

Chieftain

MrL567

Warlord

zxcvbob

Emperor

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